THE 



POPULAR SCIENCE 

 MONTHLY. 



OCTOBER, 1889. 



PENSIONS FOR ALL. 



By Genebal M. M. TEUMBULL. 



IN the wondrous literature of the time there is hardly anything 

 so glaring and sensational as the report of the Commissioner 

 of Pensions explaining the work of his department for the year 

 ending June 30, 1888. In that report he says : " The total amount 

 expended for all purposes by the Bureau of Pensions was $82,038,- 

 386.59. The total expenditures of the Government for the fiscal 

 year 1888 were $267,924,801.13. Thus it will be seen that the amount 

 expended for and on account of pensions was nearly thirty-one 

 per cent of the entire outlay of the Government/' 



In round numbers, one third of the public payments goes for 

 pensions, and it is gravely proposed that the pensioners have the 

 other two thirds also. A few days ago the Governor of Illinois, 

 speaking to the Illinois department of the Grand Army, said, 

 " If the Government paid $1,000,000 daily for pensions, the nation 

 as a nation would be just as rich at the end of the year as it was 

 before, as the money would still be in the hands of our own people." 



To take a million dollars a day from industry and bestow it 

 upon idleness is a patriotic form of dragoonade much recom- 

 mended by politicians like the Governor of Illinois. The " nation 

 as a nation " is not injured by it ; the money is still in the hands 

 of our own people. It is merely taken out of the hands that 

 earned it and put into other hands to spend it. 



In Whittier's delightful poetry we are cheered by the informa- 

 tion that 



"... Barbara Frietchie's work is o'er, 



And the rebel rides on his raids no more." 



True, the rebel raiders have dismounted, but the "boys in 

 blue " have sprung into the vacant saddles and the raids go on. 



VOL. XXXV. — 46 



